ARCA GENERAL TIRE 200 WINNER JAKE FINCH IN THE TALLADEGA WINNERS CIRCLE! – MOTORSPORTA AMERICA PHOTO
- Jake Finch won Saturday’s ARCA Menards Series General Tire 200 at Talladega Superspeedway, his first career series victory. It was 11th series start and he became the 358th driver to earn at least one ARCA Menards Series win.
- Finch is the 20th ARCA Menards Series driver to earn his first series victory at Talladega Superspeedway and the 18th consecutive different winner at Talladega dating back to 2006.
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Finch’s win came 30 years after his father James won the ARCA Menards Series race at Talladega as an owner with Jeff Purvis driving and 15 years after his father won the NASCAR Cup Series race at Talladega with Brad Keselowski driving. FInch’s winning crew chief on Saturday, Shannon Rursch, was also the crew chief on Keselowski’s winning team in 2009.
- Former NASCAR Cup Series champion Kurt Busch was in victory lane to offer congratulations; the fifth and final NASCAR Xfinity Series victory of Busch’s career came while driving for James Finch’s Phoenix Racing team at Daytona International Speedway in 2011.
- Finch became the first driver in ARCA Menards Series history at Talladega Superspeedway to lead every lap.
- The race was slowed only by the scheduled caution at the midway point. The nine laps under caution allowed the race to be run at an average speed of 158.626 miles per hour, the fifth-fastest race ARCA Menards Series race at Talladega.
- Finch’s Venturini Motorsports teammate Kris Wright finished second, his best career ARCA Menards Series finish.
- Reigning ARCA Menards Series champion Jesse Love was inducted into the ARCA Wall of Champions inside the International Motorsports Hall of Fame on Friday afternoon. Love, who won the ARCA Menards Series race at Talladega Superspeedway in 2023 while driving the same No. 20 Toyota that Finch drove to victory in 2024, went on to earn his first career NASCAR Xfinity Series win on Saturday afternoon.
- Both Saturday Talladega winners, Jake Finch and Jesse Love, stayed the weekend in the same motorhome in the Talladega infield.
- Tanner Gray finished third for Joe Gibbs Racing, his best career ARCA Menards Series finish.
- Daytona winner Gus Dean ran among the lead draft all afternoon and finished fourth, giving Venturini Motorsports three of the top four finishers. It was his eighth top-five finish in his last eleven series starts.
- Christian Rose took the white flag in third position but pulled put of the draft on the backstretch to try to make a move for the win. Unfortunately, no one went with him and he dropped to fifth at the finish. All four of Rose’s four career top-five finishes have come in the last five ARCA Menards Series races, including two this year at Daytona, where he finished fourth, and Talladega.
- Sean Corr finished sixth, Amber Balcaen seventh, Andres Perez eighth, Frankie Muniz ninth, and Toni Breidinger tenth.
- Christian Rose unofficially leads the ARCA Menards Series championship standings by one point over Greg Van Alst, who finished eleventh. Andres Perez is unofficially third, just three points out of the lead, and Amber Balcaen is just six points behind.
- The next race for the ARCA Menards Series is the General Tire 150 at Dover Motor Speedway on Friday, April 26. The race will be televised live on FS1 at 5 pm ET and will be broadcast on select affiliates of the MRN Radio network nationwide.
